My husband and I joke that January and February are actually one long month called “Suckuary.” And as January ends today, I’m there.
There are so many good things happening right now. For one, today and tomorrow are the last two days of #KrakenFriends2018 (did you check that out yet?) and it’s been awesome seeing people take the quiz and discover new queer spec-fic authors at awesome pricing.
For another? I finished edits for Of Echoes Born and sent them off to my editor. The next time I see that book it’ll be for line proofs, and then the book will actually exist. I cannot wait to have this book out and about, though I’m trying to remind myself not to set expectations super-high, given that it’s a collection of short fiction. I worked decades in the bookstore. I know what many, many readers think of short fiction. But I don’t care: I want this book out there so much.
So, those two awesome things alone should be just that: awesome.
Instead, I’m struggling my way out of bed, feel gross, groggy and gritty all the time, and am barely sleeping. Because Suckuary.
I have one of those lights that helps (and it does help). And normally, walking the dog three (sorry, four) times a day also helps, but ice rain fell a week or two ago and nothing has happened since to defeat it, so it’s more like sliding around the block than walking, and we can’t get to anywhere I can let him off leash without a car, so… all week it’s me and him, doing loops on icy sidewalks and neither of us are getting anything out of it.
And, one last thing, even though it’s self-imposed: if I don’t send off a piece today (and it’s looking around fifty-fifty at best), then my self-imposed “submit something once a month this year” will fall flat right out of the gate. Now, I’ve got plenty of reasons to be gentle with myself (and I’m always telling people to be gentle with themselves, so y’know, physician, heal thyself). Multiple trips to the endontics/dentist office, that whole fainting thing, the worst migraine I’ve had in at least a couple of years, edits for Of Echoes Born and Saving the Date…
It still feels like falling down. So I’ll try, today, to maybe send something off. We’ll see if that works. If it doesn’t, we’ll try very hard for that to be an okay thing.
Triad Magic
Update for Triad Magic for the week was pretty much nil, given the working-on-edits state for the last week. I’ve got more edits now, for Saving the Date, so this might repeat, but that’s okay. This is why my word count goals are so light.
Faux-Ho-Ho
See above, re: edits.
Other Short Stuff
Well, as I said above, I’ve kind of stumbled here. I’m hoping I can finish a piece today and send it out for the “submit one thing a month” goal, but if I don’t… *deep breath* I’m totally capable of taking the advice I give to others. Totally.
Open Calls for Submission
I also try to list off calls for submission I find (and find tempting) every week on Writing Wednesdays, so without further ado:
- Chicken Soup for the Soul—Various titles, various themes, various deadlines, 1,200 word count limit.
- Mischief Corner Books—Open to submissions for various themes, including Legendary Love, Everyday Heroes, Cowboys and Space; these are open rolling calls, so no deadline.
- NineStar Press—Open to submissions for various length prose, paranormal, science fiction, fantasy and horror; Click “Currently Seeking” header for details; word count limit variable.
- Spectrum Lit—This is an ongoing Patreon flash fic provider, 1,500 hard word count limit; LGBTQ+ #ownvoice only; ongoing call.
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to F*** Them—Circlet Press; Erotic short stories with magical beasts and shapeshifter tropes; 3,000 to 7,000 word count limit; deadline February 1st, 2018.
- Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction—Uncanny Magazine; Doesn’t require stories to explore issues relating to disability, but encourages them; 750 to 6,000 word count limit; deadline February 15th, 2018.
- Multipartner Anthology—ERWA/Excessia; Multi-partner erotica; 4,000 to 10k word count limit; deadline March 1st, 2018.
- War on Christmas—ChiZine; Deranged and demented stories and poems that snap back against holiday schmaltz; 500 to 5,000 words; Deadline March 4th, 2018.
- What’s Your Sign?—JMS; Looking for queer astrological-based romances; 12k words or more; Deadline March 31st, 2018.
- Tru-Romance: Love in the Age of PrEP—Beautiful Dreamer Press; stories involving the impact the Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis regimen has on the standard model of romance fiction; 4,000 to 7,000 word count limit; deadline April 15th, 2018.
- Lost—NineStar Press. LGBTQIA+ romantic pairing. Both HEA and HFN are acceptable, Click “Lost” header for the theme. 30k to 120k word count limit; deadline April 30th, 2018.
- Happiness in Numbers—Less than Three Press; Polyamorous LGBTQIA+ anthology, non-erotic polyamorous stories that explore the idea of “Family”; 10k to 20k word count limit; deadline April 30th, 2018.
- MLR Press—Quite a few different themes are open; 10k to 40k word count limit; deadlines vary, but the earliest right now is April 30th, 2018.
- Artefacts and Alchemy—Edge Books; Tesseracts 22 is doing a historical magical realism theme; 5k word count limit; deadline May 15th, 2018.
'Nathan Burgoine 